Shamans are supposed to travel on the fast lane into the Otherworld and back. Obviously they don’t need decades of meditation or living as an eremite deep into the forest to get any spiritual insights. Wouldn’t it be great if we could do the same? Throughout history people tried to access the Otherworld through rituals and tribal dances. Today’s psy trance events and sweat hut workshops seem to be a modern reverberation of old rituals promising quick access into supernatural realms.
Since the 60ties we’ve seen a lot of attempts to adapt shamanic traditions or using techniques to reach other dimension of consciousness – regression, hypnotherapy, sweat huts and tribal dances. Not everything is really “shamanic”. The term is often misunderstood.
It’s good to be careful since we have to distinct between real research about indigenous culture and a romanticizing concept of Shamanism developed by Westeners. According to wikipedia there is no single agreed upon definition for the word “shamanism” among anthropologists. The general meaning is “Shamanism is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world.” A shaman is a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, who typically enters into a trance state during a ritual, and practices divination and healing” (WIKIPEDIA).
The important thing here is that the shaman is somebody voluntarily attempting to reach altered stats of consciousness in opposition to people who got overwhelmed by an abduction, NDE or paranormal experience.
Obviously, not anybody can become a shaman or has the ability of a shaman. Initiation is the key. Shamans are “called” by dreams or signs which require training. The Yedi in Star Wars give you a good idea what the call to adventure and initiation is about.
The initiation of the shaman is often described as dangerous and as a painstaking ordeal. It takes time, therefore there is also for these gifted people no quick access or “highway to the Otherworld”. It can be also a problem to know if somebody has the gift or not, which is called “Fire In The Head”.
In my movie project I deal also with the problem of having the gift but being not aware about it.
Despite the obstacles shamanic flight isn’t impossible at all. Shamanic flight basically means it is believed that part of the soul is free to leave the body, an idea common to any culture but impossible to proof. It seems that also ordinary people can travel through certain practices into other realms. Stimulation through rhythmic music plays an important role. However the difference might be that the non-initiate or normal traveller might be more like an Otherworld-tourist who can’t really understand a lot or distinct between deception and truth. Perhaps, only the gifted one can really communicate and may have the healing powers which are the most important quality of the shaman.
However, Tom Cowan, an expert in Shamanism, says that “If the shamanic archetype is a natural part of the human psyche, then it should not be unusual to discover certain power animals repeated across cultures and through the centuries (Imagination and the Imaginal in Fire in the Head, Tom Cowan).
Particularly the creative artist is required to look out for “highways into the otherworld” from time to time:
“Certainly the oldest tales and legends about the origins of a people and their culture heroes had to have been first articulated by someone who today would be said to have a “creative imagination.” I use this term to refer to a person’s ability to describe and impart shape and structure to visionary experiences, not to imply that the products of the imagination are fantasy, mere speculation, or raving hallucinations that have no basis in ordinary or non ordinary reality”(Tom Cowan).
Maybe imagination is the key, imagination is the highway to the otherworld.
